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May 7 Answered Prayers (A Trip to the Cardiologist)

Kate was home a whopping 3 days before her first medical appointment at Riley Children's Hospital. The cardiology team was waiting for her Tuesday morning for an echocardiogram, EKG and treatment plan with the physician. They consulted on Katie's medical file while she was in China and suspected that our peanut would need open heart surgery to fix the ASD and VSD (holes) in her heart. As you can imagine, Dennis and I were a nervous wreck and didn't sleep the night before. We are not sleeping well anyway from jet lag, but this was different. It was a worry filled night with lots of tossing and turning.

We arrived at Riley, with Jack and Nola in tow, to start the testing. Kate was a champ and smiled and played with the nurses. They commented on how well adjusted she seemed and that she actually sat very still during the procedure, which lasted a little over 30 minutes. Sitting in the lab across the the hallway was Katie's cardiologist who was watching the images of her heart pop up on his computer screen. I remember thinking, "If it is worse than expected, he already knows and will be in here shortly to tell us."

The door opened and in walked a smiling and very happy physician. I knew in that moment that God had answered our prayers and that our Katie-Bug would be alright. Dr. S. explained that the ASD in Kate's heart had healed itself. He further explained that the VSD was still there and classified as "small" to "small plus" and measured roughly 3mm. A repair could be needed in the future, but nothing is needed right now. She has no restrictions and will return to the cardiology department in 1 year for a reevaluation. We knew that he liked Kate from an unexpected visit in the waiting room, but his affection seemed to grow in just minutes as he explained that he is the proud daddy of two little girls from China...adopted from Kate's province. I could see that Kate pulled his heart strings and for a few moments he was reliving those first few days with his daughters. He spoke to Kate in Mandarin and Cantonese and beamed when she smiled. She was fond of him and the feeling was mutual! As we were leaving, Dr. S. asked me if I had ever heard of the Chinese legend of the red thread. My response, "I have. And I am sure that it is no coincidence that our paths have crossed." He smiled and agreed.

First trip to the cardiologist!

To celebrate Kate's healing heart, we had frozen custard (Nola's choice) and grilled cheese before taking daddy back to work!